Erik Esckilsen has been a Champlain College instructor since 1997, teaching such courses as Creative Writing, Digital Storytelling, Interactive Storytelling, Media Writing, Print Journalism, Rhetoric, and Screenwriting, as well as courses on the novel and on the intersection of history, politics, and film culture in China and the Middle East. He is the author of three novels for young-adult readers, all published by Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books: The Last Mall Rat (2003), Offsides (2004), and The Outside Groove (2006).

Prior to becoming an educator, Erik worked as a journalist, both as an editor and as a reporter, publishing articles on art and culture in the Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Seven Days, and other periodicals. Recently he served as the faculty liaison to the narrative development team on the electronic game project Breakaway, produced in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund and Population Media Center.

He holds a BA in Writing and Government from St. Lawrence University, an MA in English Composition from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University.